Saturday, December 6, 2014

First 24 hours with the OnePlus One 64 GB Sandstone Black Smartphone

I received an invite for purchasing the OnePlus One 64 GB Sandstone Black smartphone, just launched in India on Amazon.in.

I initially was not too sure if I want to purchase a phone by a new company (after bring an Iphone user followed by a Nexus user).

But then I saw the configuration and pricing. 64 GB space, 3 GB Ram, Snapdragon 801, 13 mp camera, 4G, all this for Rs.22,000/- Looked too good to miss. I also sent out a tweet asking for opinions, and everyone was positive that I should go for it (and if not, share the invite with them, lol).

My one hesitation was it not being pure vanilla android. Customized ROM means late updates, unstable apps and the sort. But this was a risk I was willing to take.

The invite is valid only for 48 hours, which creates the urgency to quickly use it. I gave in to my impulse and bought it, using the credit card EMI facility that too. Since I did not want to wait too long I chose the one day delivery option at an additional Rs. 99/- (Gadget lovers will understand and empathize with my excitement).

Next day i.e. 5th December 2014 afternoon, the package was in my hands.

The packing is really different and fancy, with the beautiful combo of red and white. Along with the phone comes a charger separately, and a USB cable, sim pin and sim tray (and manual). Wish they included earphones too, but that simply is not a trend with phones these days.

There is a small sticker on the temporary scratch guard, which I had to remove to see the keys to type. And since that left the surface sticky, I had to remove the entire guard itself (which I usually don't do till I have purchased a scratch guard and case). Wish the sticker was not there.

Anyway, setting up the phone was pretty standard. Only difference, along with a google account it asks you to create or log into your Cyanogen account.

Please keep in mind this is a review on using the phone for just 24 hours and not a week in which I could check all the features. This review should simply help you figure if the phone is for you or not.

LIKES-

1. The config, as mentioned before. I was tired of the battery issues and 16 GB (That went down to 12 GB after 2 years of use) on my Nexus 4. Hence a powerful battery and a horse-load of space was something I was quite thrilled about.

2. I do not have much knowledge about custom ROM and rooting, but am sure it means endless tweaking possibilities which I will look into soon.

3. The camera looks decent, check out this quick image I took to check the quality: I am pretty happy with the colours, details and textures.

4. It claims that the battery lasts through the day, it has been 24 hours and my battery is now on 26% with fair usage on wifi (mails, social media, chatting, clicking pictures, playing candy crush). But am not too sure if the battery will last all day on 3G.

DISLIKES-

1. The size. Now this is my mistake. I thought the phone would be slightly bigger than my nexus 4, as I do not like phones the size of phablets that you cannot operate with one hand. This unfortunately is long, and you can use it with one hand only if you have a big hand. :P It also does not fit into my pocket, which is usually a requirement for me.

2. The back panel has a sandstone rough texture, which I personally did not like. Maybe it gives a better grip, but every time I touch it it feels rather weird. (Maybe I got too used to the smooth back glass on my Nexus 4?)

3. The phone heated up when I played candy crush for 15-20 minutes. I wonder what will happen if I play a heavy duty game like Asphalt?

OVERALL VERDICT-

For the price, the phone is definitely a nice buy. I guess guys would like it more than girls. But I am not 100% satisfied, the amount of excitement the invite only purchase mode creates, the product itself disappointed me a little. (Will give it to my brother mostly!)